The New York world's fair of 1939 - 1940. People gather on the fairgrounds. Streamline train on display. People watching the railroad train. AT&T building, United States Steel building, Westinghouse, Goodrich, Chrysler, General Motors and Ford buildings in view. Entrance to Ford building. Statue of Mercury. Interiors of the entrance hall. People watch various displays. A couple looks at Ford, Lincoln, and Lincoln Zephyr cars outside the building. They look at Henry Ford's first gasoline-powered engine on display. Crowd look at a huge mobile mural by Henry Billings. They move through hall as they look at exhibits. They watch the main exhibit-'Ford Cycle of Production'. The steps involved in the production process of Ford being displayed at the fair
Visitors gather at the Ford Motor Company exhibit in the 1939 New York World's Fair. They gather in front of an exhibit contrasting hand manufacture with modern machines used in production and assembly lines. Visitors entering the Ford theater at the Fair. They watch a live stage production entitled: "A Thousand Times Neigh,"starring the American Ballet Caravan and "Dobbin," the dancing horse. View of the stage show in progress. A woman fashionably dressed crosses the stage and is next seen posing beside a stylish prototype Ford automobile. Views of a Ford motion picture entitled: "Symphony in F," that animates elements of auto production in an entertaining way. Visitors climbing stairs from the Industrial Hall, to the Garden Court. Ford cars are seen driving along overhead roadways. The visitors line up to ride those cars in an exhibit called "The Road of Tomorrow." Several people getting into a car at the exhibit. Cars driving around and through the building. In one scene, the symbols of the Fair, the "Trylon and Perisphere" are seen in the background. View of the Landscape Garden Court, where visitors walk among trees and fountains. "The New World Ensemble," conducted by Ferde Grofe, plays music in a small semi-outdoor enclave.
The New York world's fair of 1939 to 1940. Views in garden court. The New World Ensemble under direction of Ferde Groffe plays in an amphitheater. Amusement section with dancers and ice-skaters. People ski jump and parachute jump. People walk and being pushed in chair cars. The souvenir stand. People eat food. Views of fair at night. Lighting and fireworks at night.
A textile mill in New York. Women are stitching and sewing the fabric cutouts into military uniforms. Men marking the stitched uniforms and attaching buttons. Man transporting the finished uniforms on a lorry. A military official tries on the uniform for fitting. 1939.
Clip opens with view of some of the 40,000+ fans who crowded Yankee Stadium in New York for "Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day" on July 4, 1939. The Yankees played two baseball games against the Washington Senators that day. Distant footage from left field shows Senators retiring Yankees and running off the field. Yankees run onto the field. In game two, Yankees second baseman Joe Gordon hits a long single that drives in three Yankee runs. Gehrig seen taking framed petition headlined "Don't Quit." Flag reading "1927 Champions" raised on flagpole. Members of that great Yankee team, including Babe Ruth (in white suit) and current Yankee coach Earle Combs (in Yankee uniform) walk up to home plate for the ceremony. Players, executives, dignitaries, photographers gathered at home plate. Gehrig listens to speech, head down. (The only sound bite in this clip is heard here as the announcer says: "In a case like yours, all league and glove lines are obliterated..." ) Next, in footage from game two, Yankees get hits off Washington pitcher Alex Carrasquel. Fans stand up to watch the action. Senators won the first game 3-2; Yankees took the second game, 11-1. (Note: Gehrig, the fabled "Iron Horse" of the Yankees, had to retire that year because of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis aka ALS, often called "Lou Gehrig's disease," which would kill him within two years.)
On November 2, 1940, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and party visit P-39 aircraft production line at the Bell Aircraft Company factory, 2050 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York, and P-40 production lines at the Curtiss Aeroplane factory, 2303 Kenmore Avenue, Buffalo, NY. Workers in the Bell plant pose around and inside fuselages taking shape along a production line for Bell P-39 Airacobra airplanes. In the Curtiss plant, view from rear, of Secret Service agent in coat and hat, standing on running board of an open Packard motor car carrying President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and his party as they drive slowly along an aisle in the factory, showing P-40 aircraft in various stages of completion. The President is barely visible in the back seat. (This is a 1939 Packard twelve, model 1708, special parade car, built for the President's use.) View from ahead of the President's car, as it proceeds along the Curtiss P-40 production line. (The President, in coat and hat, sits in the right rear seat.) As they progress along the production line, the aircraft seen are increasingly more complete. At the Bell plant, the motorocade passes a fully assembled P-39 on display. The President holds a desk model of the plane. The American flag and Presidential flag are displayed on the front of the car. The president is now seen without his hat. The car moves into a section of one of the factories that fabricates wing assemblies and other smaller parts. Closeup front view of the President and party as the car begins to exit the Bell factory on Elmwood Avenue. The building has "Bell Aircraft Corp." written on it. Employees are lined up outside the plant and applaud the President. [Note: There is a possibility that some scenes may be from other Buffalo-area aircraft factories that started production in 1942, including the Bell Plant in Wheatfield, NY (Niagara Falls) and the Curtiss Plant #2 at the Buffalo Airport.]